The 20th Century saw the blossoming of the genius of the Russian masters, Prof. Nicholas Roerich and Dr. Svetoslav Roerich. They introduced previously untapped emotions into art, developed a new freedom and, in a way, changed the very concept of the 'beautiful'. The Roerichs' landscapes, for example, have a monumental quality though the very pictures are small in size. The mountains in the canvases float, immersed in the clouds or in the blues, as though to confirm the presence of metaphysical nature contained within the physically crystal-like solid mountains. The mountain ranges in these paintings are symbols of spiritual ascent as depicted in the concept of 'Meru Parvatha' in Hindu mythology.